From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Norbert_Sch=E4fer?= ADDCOM DE> Date: 26 feb 2003 Subject: Re: Are top foreigners being invited to Chinese Chess championships any more? Sam, since 1993 there is no limitation for non-chinese players. Each team has two players for the team competition, but the number of non-chinese players is not limited. I know that there are at least two teams from U.S. (West and East) taking part at every WCC during the last years. Perhaps you can contact one of U.S. team members. Regards Norbert ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sam Sloan" ISHIPRESS COM> To: TECHUNIX TECHNION AC IL> Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 6:15 PM Subject: Are top foreigners being invited to Chinese Chess championships any more? > In 1995, I was invited to compete in the World Championship of Chinese > Chess, held in Singapore. I was also invited to compete in similar > events in 1989 and 2000. In 1989 I won the prize for "First Foreigner" > of Chinese chess in Beijing, which was in effect the World > Championship of Chinese Chess for non-Chinese. > > Each country was allowed two players, but I received a special > invitation to play. I got off to a great start in Singapore. In the > first round, I got a draw with a representative from Indonesia. He was > Chinese and a strong player. The organizers were so impressed with my > result that in round two they paired me against a grandmaster from > Macau, one of the top ten or so players in the world, and put me up on > stage with a demonstration board to display the moves. > > The result was that I played a horrible game, probably the worst game > I have ever played. The game was over in a few minutes. > > After that, I was put back down on the bottom boards where I belonged. > > There were several Germans in the tournament who has taken up the game > fairly recently but who had been studying hard. They were FIDE rated > chess masters. I could see that they were stronger than me and, absent > a stroke of luck, I could not beat them. In the end, I wound up with > three points in 9 games. The top German Player got 4 points, only one > more than I but there was really no comparison. Throughout the > tournament he had been playing strong Chinese players in the middle of > the field whereas I had gotten my points from weak foreigners near the > bottom. > > There was a controversy at the end because there was a big cash prize > for top "foreigner" which means non-Chinese. There were two very > strong players from Vietnam in the tournament, the first time that > Vietnam had been represented in the event. These players were > grandmaster strength, much stronger than the Germans, the Italians, > the Canadians and myself. The Vietnamese insisted that they were > non-Chinese and therefore claimed all the prizes for non-Chinese. As a > result, none of the Europeans won a significant prize. > > Since then, I have never been invited to a Chinese chess championship. > I would like to know the reason. Here are possible reasons: > > 1. There have since then been no top level Chinese chess tournaments > to which foreigners were invited. > > 2. They think that I am too weak to compete for the World > Championship. > > 3. They have forgotten about me or do not know my address. > > 4. They no longer award top foreigner prizes because they know that > the Vietnamese will win all of them or > > 5. Henry Fok, who puts up the money for these tournamenmts, no longer > sponsors them. > > I am just asking. I do not know the answer to this question. Can > anybody tell me? > > Sam Sloan > http://www.samsloan.com/cc-rules.htm